The cycling of carbon on the US east coast shelf and upper slope has been studied for 20 years in a variety of interdisciplinary programs focused on the, Mid and South Atlantic Bights. The culmination of this research was a comprehensive field study conducted in 1996 to ascertain whether the Cape Hatteras shelf was a net source or sink for atmospheric CO(2), and the associated transformations and pathways of inorganic and organic carbon. The rationale, objectives, design, and overview of the Ocean Margins Program are given here as a framework to interpret the results of the papers presented in this special issue. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.